


The Dark Hours

by Merileigh



Category: GreedFall (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, When you play the Game of Thrones you win or you die, that went sideways fast
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:27:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21880327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merileigh/pseuds/Merileigh
Summary: I came back to myself when Vasco took my hand and raised it, pressing two of my fingers to the spot where the lines of his tattoo pierced his lower lip then sliding them down to his chin. “We call this tattoo the Eye of the Storm,” he said, “for Nauts who’ve sailed through a hurricane and lived to tell about it.“You have the heart for this one,” he added. His voice was low and fierce, and I couldn’t look away from his eyes. “But you have to keep going.”
Relationships: De Sardet/Vasco (GreedFall)
Kudos: 39





	The Dark Hours

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers, so many spoilers, for events surrounding the coup and De Sardet's origins.

The house was quiet. It was too dark to see the face of the clock on the wall, but the stillness told me what I needed to know of the time—too late for Mr. Fain, my secretary in New Serene, to be awake and too early for the cook. I ran my fingers over the edge of the work table before I sat down; if I was quiet, I could grind some hoof fungus and get a start on tomorrow’s tasks without waking anyone. It was immensely preferable to sitting in bed, watching the shadows crawl across the floor. There was a blanket in the chair by the hearth, and I wrapped it around my shoulders over the camisole and soft, worn trousers I slept in and sat in the little wooden chair to work.

If I hadn’t heard the creak of the stair a few minutes later, I might not have noticed that the clump of dried fungus in the bowl had been ground down to fine powder and was likely to be ground into the wall of the mortar itself at the rate I was going. My thoughts were so far away, occupied with events days earlier.

I looked up to meet Vasco’s eyes as he was coming down the stairs. His tattoos obscured his face in the little light the banked fire gave off; his eyes were dark, smudged with the kohl that Nauts often wore. I don’t know what my face told him, but he came around behind me and put his hands over mine, gently taking the pestle out of my fingers and pulling my palm away from the rim of the bowl.

“My tempest…you haven’t slept in two days. Come back to bed.”

My throat burned. I leaned my head back against him and closed my eyes, trying to master myself before I answered. He was right; I could feel my emotions balanced precariously on a wire, about to topple off. But. “There’s no sleep for me tonight.”

He knelt beside my chair, keeping his left hand over mine, and looked up at me until I turned to meet his eyes. His fine blonde hair hung loose, framing the angles of his face. “Kurt,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

I nodded, not trusting my voice.

“You feel guilty for executing a traitor.”

“He was given traitorous orders.” Unconsciously, my hands worried at the wooden arms of the chair. “His face was so grim. I don’t believe he wanted to hurt us.”

Vasco clasped my hand in his. “Lily. He would have killed both you and Constantin, following those orders. And he meant to follow them. What does it matter how he felt about it?”

“It matters to me.”

Vasco growled low in his throat and stood, reaching to pick up a vial from the table.

\---

_In those dark hours, I saw the things I should have noticed before. He was quiet that morning, not like himself, when I was finally able to get answers from Admiral Cabral—and the answer to a question I hadn’t even known to ask, about the mystery of my face and my resemblance to the natives of Teer Fradee. I had been distracted by personal revelations and hadn’t thought to ask him what was the matter. I should have noticed when he wouldn’t look at me. I should have noticed when he made his excuses and left me at the door to the governor’s mansion._

_I did notice when I heard the steady, relentless drumming of his boot heels on the floorboards._

\---

Vasco had his back to me at the sideboard and was pouring wine into a glass. When he came back, he pulled me out of the chair to sit beside him on the floor by the hearth. He put the glass into my hand, and I turned it in my fingers, watching the red reflections on the rim. It was only several moments later that I realized what he’d done.

“You’re forgetting that I know this trick,” I said, smiling, or trying to.

“It’s no trick.” He leaned back on one hand to better study my face. “Drink it, and sleep.”

I put the glass carefully down on the floor and pulled the blanket tighter. “Vasco, I put those guns into their hands.”

“How do you figure that, De Sardet?” I recognized the skepticism in his voice from the first days that I’d known him, but the expression he wore was more tender.

“The shipment that Kurt and I helped to sneak aboard your ship.” I had enough of my wits left to avoid saying “smuggle,” knowing how that offended his pride. “You were there when we found the crates in the warehouse in New Serene. One was broken, with guns inside. The same guns. Sent by Kurt’s commander and purchased especially for that day.”

“Do you think Kurt knew?”

“No. I’ve known Kurt since I was a child. He hates intrigue.” Too late I realized I’d spoken of him in the present tense. I caught my breath, staring into the fireplace until I could be sure that I wouldn’t dissolve into tears.

Vasco, watching me, was silent for a long moment. “Did you love him?” he finally asked.

“I did, once,” I answered after a moment, meeting his dark eyes and smiling ruefully to remember. “I must have been twelve years old. If you can call it love at that age.” I paused, sure that I should end it there, but he raised his eyebrows at me and so I took a breath and continued. “He had just saved the prince, my uncle, from an assassination attempt during the first panic after the malichor appeared. It was the reason they assigned him to be our master at arms.” I shrugged, under the blanket. “He was nothing like a courtier, and he didn’t judge me by this, my face,” I added gesturing at the mark of an _on ol menawi_ that spread across my chin and throat. So many times I’d heard it called a defect, marring my looks.

“But once I heard him arguing with my uncle about his pay. I think I only realized then what a Coin Guard was. …I was more careful after that.” That had been when I’d understood that whatever affection he showed us had been bought. But the shock of his betrayal proved that I had thought--so naïve still--that he'd cared for us in some way, despite orders and contracts.

That seemed to be enough. Something eased in Vasco’s expression, and he nodded. After that, he kept his silence and let me keep mine.

\---

_Anger, first, driven by fear. And stronger than both of those, the fierce desire to protect Constantin. Protect my cousin, who didn’t deserve so many blows, one falling after the other._

_“Fight with honor.”_

_The way his face looked then—he was grappling with himself. Perhaps he was relieved to hear the words. Perhaps I had thought they would save us. That illusion ended when he stepped forward with his great sword held over one shoulder, and his expression answered all my doubts. This battle would end with one of our deaths._

_So many times in these two days I’d thought back to the way he nodded, accepting my challenge; his apology to Constantin; the words he spoke at the end. Sir de Courcillion trained my memory well; I remembered every word Kurt spoke. But the face he showed me before the battle was coldly unequivocal. He meant to kill me or die._

_I remembered odd things about the battle, sensations that got caught in my mind in the midst of the adrenaline and disorientation. Like the way the floorboards felt under my hands when I rolled out of the way of his first rush. The crack of my pistol firing echoing off the walls, Kurt’s grunt when the bullet struck him in the thigh. And when I’d succeeded in slipping around behind him, I’d done as he’d trained me to do, slashing low across his Achilles tendon and catching him by his collar as he started to fall. I believed he was warning us when he said that his commander was on the docks and the Coin Guards would succeed elsewhere on the island. Should that have been enough for me to spare his life?_

\---

I came back to myself when Vasco took my hand and raised it, pressing two of my fingers to the spot where the lines of his tattoo pierced his lower lip then sliding them down to his chin. “We call this tattoo the Eye of the Storm,” he said, “for Nauts who’ve sailed through a hurricane and lived to tell about it.

“You have the heart for this one,” he added. His voice was low and fierce, and I couldn’t look away from his eyes. “But you have to keep going.”

My gaze traveled over his tattoos, all the stories he’d lived. There was something I’d been meaning to tell him, before I’d been swamped by surprises and tragedies. “Vasco, I was born on one of your ships.”

He sat back a little in surprise. “What?”

“My mother, my real mother…she was an islander taken during one of the Congregation’s expeditions. Admiral Cabral told me that I was born aboard the ship on the way to Serene, and I have no reason to doubt her. But if that’s so, how am I not a sea-born Naut?”

He shook his head, his brow furrowed. “The Congregation and the Nauts have more dealings than I know. You may have been used to settle some debt or another. If the answers are out there, we’ll look for them.”

I smiled, though I could feel weariness stinging at the corners of my eyes. “I’d be glad of the company.”

He answered by kissing me, and the warmth of his lips came closer to undoing me than anything else that long night had. When he leaned back, he didn’t mention the tears at the corners of my eyes but reached up to touch his fingers to my temples. “If you’d been sea born,” he said, “you’d have the marks here. Like mine, but in the pattern of waves instead of spears.”

He considered my face and touched my lower lip. “You haven’t sailed through a hurricane. Be glad of that,” he added with half a smile. “But you’ve discovered new lands. So here,” he tapped my chin, “the tattoo we call Far Shores, mountains with waves breaking on either side.

“Having served under you, I can say you’re captain material.” He traced lines on either side of my mouth, weaving down my neck. His fingers trailed over the rough skin of my birthmark without hesitation. “Journey marks, lines like the meandering currents, to celebrate your first successful voyages captaining your ship.”

I tried to imagine myself with the bold tattoos Nauts wore. “All the lives we could have lived.”

“Because of you, my tempest, I’m happy with the one I’ve got.”

He looked away, reached for the wine glass and pressed it into my hand. This time I closed my fingers on the stem and took it from him. I would carry what I had to carry, tomorrow and the next day, and might never have answers. I could only hope to make decisions that wouldn’t haunt me so much in the future.

I raised the glass to him. “Hardy winds.”

“And fair skies, Lily.”

**Author's Note:**

> I love that GreedFall went sideways on me like that with no warning. I came into that session with a plan (that included doing Kurt's quest!), and now suddenly everyone's dying and governments are toppling all because I decided to drop in on cousin Constantin while I was in the neighborhood. I feel emotionally blindsided, but I'm so excited to see how much of a train wreck I'm going to get into. I have a feeling that "I could only hope to make decisions that wouldn’t haunt me so much in the future," are going to be famous last words, and the $#@% hasn't really hit the fan yet.
> 
> Also, I don't know if this has happened to anyone else, but I saw Kurt's ghost y'all. After I executed him, I went down to the Coin Arena for a quest, and he was standing there against the wall by the fire wearing the weapon I'd bought him like half an hour before I killed him. I know it was a glitch, but how awesome/traumatizing would it be if his ghost followed you through the rest of the game?
> 
> I'm trying hard to avoid spoilers, so if you leave a comment (first of all, thank you!), please please please don't include anything plot related, even/especially related to Kurt's storyline. Because now I definitely have to play through again to save him.


End file.
